In many manufacturing operations, articles must be attached to an underlying structure. As an example, in an aerospace application, various types of transmission lines and other system components need to be attached to an underlying structure of an aircraft. As an example, the system components are attached to the structure by mechanical fasteners installed into the structure. However, drilling holes in the structure of the aircraft for installation of the mechanical fasteners is labor intensive and may create undesirable stress concentrations about the hole. As another example, the system components are attached to the structure by fasteners that are adhesively bonded to a surface of the structure. However, the process of bonding the fastener to the structure is also labor intensive and requires applying an adhesive to the fastener, seating the fastener on the surface of the structure, clamping the fastener to the surface of the structure with a separate clamping fixture to apply pressure to the adhesive and removing the clamping fixture after the adhesive has cured. Thus, either fastening technique has disadvantages related to process time, quality assurance and cost.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art continue with research and development efforts in the field of attachment devices.